Court to rule on door-to-door solicitation permits

Published: Tuesday, October 16, 2001

Associated Press

WASHINGTON {AP} The Supreme Court agreed Monday to confront a particularly tough separation of church and state issue by deciding whether a town can require permits from Jehovah's Witnesses or others who want to solicit door-to-door.

Jehovah's Witnesses routinely go door-to-door to distribute literature and recruit believers. A village ordinance in Stratton, Ohio, requires members of the faith  and others, from door-to-door salesmen to politicians rounding up votes  to get the mayor's permission before soliciting and to display the permit for homeowners who ask to see it.

Jehovah's Witnesses sued the village in a church-state case with broad free-speech implications, and the justices agreed Monday to hear their appeal of a lower court's decision for Stratton.

"Permission to preach comes from God and not man," said Paul Polidoro, attorney for Jehovah's Witnesses, who have not solicited door-to-door in Stratton during the three years the permits have been required.

Village leaders said permits are free and nobody has ever been denied one. The ordinance is reasonable in "weighing the First Amendment rights of canvassers against the right of homeowners to security, privacy and peacefulness in their homes," they told the Supreme Court.

The Constitution's First Amendment guarantees both free speech and the free exercise of religion. An appellate court ruled the ordinance does not discriminate against Witnesses because it demands the same permit of everybody.

The Supreme Court probably will hear the case early next year, with a ruling expected by summer. The justices restricted the issue to the First Amendment ramifications of requiring approval for all door-to-door advocacy.

Stratton requires people planning solicitations to divulge to the mayor names, addresses for the past five years and names and addresses of their affiliations.

Lawyers for the Jehovah's Witnesses said if church members were to complete permit requests, they would lose the right of citizens to practice their religion anonymously.